[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 19 (Tuesday, January 29, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4253-4254]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-2126]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7134-5]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Eliciting Risk Tradeoffs for Valuing Fatal Cancer 
Risks

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 
et seq.), this document announces that EPA is planning to submit the 
following proposed Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB): Eliciting Risk Tradeoffs for Valuing 
Fatal Cancer Risks, EPA ICR 2057.01. Before submitting the ICR to OMB 
for review and approval, EPA is soliciting comments on specific aspects 
of the proposed information collection as described below.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before April 1, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Dr. Melonie Williams, National Center for Environmental 
Economics, US EPA, Mail Code 1809, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., 
Washington, DC, 20460. Interested persons may obtain a copy of the ICR 
without charge by contacting Dr. Williams at 202-260-7978 or 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Chris Dockins at 202-260-5728 or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Affected entities: Entities potentially affected by this action are 
those individuals who are contacted and voluntarily agree to 
participate in the survey. The survey pool will be a pre-established 
panel of respondents who have been randomly recruited from the general 
public by Knowledge Networks, Inc. or other web-based survey research 
firm. Typically, respondents have agreed with the survey research firm 
to participate in periodic web-based surveys. None of the other surveys 
conducted by the firm administering this survey will be related to this 
study.
    Title: Eliciting Risk Tradeoffs for Valuing Fatal Cancer Risks (EPA 
ICR No. 2057.01).
    Abstract: It is widely recognized that reductions in cancer risks 
are among the most important and tangible benefits resulting from a 
variety of environmental, food safety and other public health 
initiatives. Nevertheless, assessing these benefits in monetary terms 
remains a challenge. In July 2000, the United States Environmental 
Protection Agency's (USEPA's) Science Advisory Board (SAB) concluded 
that most existing estimates valuing the benefits of reductions in 
mortality risks ``should not be taken as precise estimates for the 
value of reducing the risks of fatal cancers, because of differences in 
the nature of the risks being valued * * *.'' They also commended 
efforts ``to develop systematic and credible approaches to improved 
valuation of the benefits of fatal cancer risk reduction.'' (USEPA, 
2000). The purpose of this proposed survey is to extend these efforts.
    Through a cooperative agreement, EPA's Office of Policy, Economics 
and Innovation (OPEI) and Research Triangle Institute (RTI) have 
designed and are proposing to conduct a nationwide survey of adult 
individuals. The focus of this survey is to elicit their relative 
preferences for reducing two types of potentially very different 
mortality risks--risk of automobile death and risk of contracting a 
fatal cancer. The existing empirical literature on mortality risk 
values has focused almost exclusively on accidental (occupational and/
or automobile) deaths, because individuals regularly reveal information 
on their values for avoiding these types of risks through job choices 
and consumer purchases. However, as the SAB has concluded, these values 
may not be directly applicable for valuing avoided cancer risks. In 
contrast to accidental deaths, fatal cancer risks may involve a long 
delay between exposure to a carcinogen and the first symptoms of 
disease (latency period), and death may only occur after several years 
of suffering with the disease (morbidity period).
    The proposed survey will explore individuals' tradeoffs between the 
two types of risks. It will apply established stated preference 
research methods, and the resulting survey data will be used to 
estimate (1) how strongly individuals prefer reducing one type of risk 
over the other, (2) how this strength of preference is affected by the 
length of the morbidity and latency periods, (3) and how preferences 
differ across different types of cancer. These estimates will help to 
provide researchers and policy analysts with a systematic and credible 
basis for adjusting existing mortality risk values. Such adjustments 
will be particularly useful for assessing the benefits of reducing 
fatal cancer risks, but they will also be relevant in assessing the 
benefits of reducing other types of fatal risks that involve extended 
latency and/or morbidity periods.
    The data collected through this survey will greatly benefit any 
agency or organization that has a role in protecting the public against 
fatal cancer risks and/or an interest in evaluating the resulting gains 
to society. Evaluations of this type are required under executive 
orders (Executive Order 12866) and a broad array of federal statutes, 
including the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments, the Toxic 
Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, 
Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), and 
the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). Federal agencies with a 
particular interest in assessing the benefits of reductions in fatal 
cancer incidence include not only the USEPA, but the Department of 
Health and Human Services (DHHS) (especially the Food and Drug 
Administration [FDA]), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Office 
of Management and Budget(OMB), and the Congressional Budget Office(CBO) 
as well. Many agencies and departments must also evaluate the benefits 
of their own risk reduction policies. The methodology proposed for this 
research will also provide a model for future researchers with an 
interest in exploring individuals values and tradeoffs between 
different types of health improvements.
    A thorough pretest of the survey will be conducted using 250 
respondents. For the full scale survey, information will be collected 
from an additional 2000 respondents. The survey is designed to collect 
information through an established panel of respondents, using a WebTV 
mode of administration. The data will be collected and stored 
electronically by the survey research firm. Based on previous 
experience and a limited number of cognitive pretest interviews, each 
survey will take approximately 25 minutes.
    Responses to the survey will be voluntary. Typically, panel members 
are free to choose whether or not to respond

[[Page 4254]]

to any particular survey as long as they meet survey quotas set in 
their agreement with the web-based survey research firm. In 
collaboration with Knowledge Networks, RTI has developed a plan for 
assuring the confidentiality of participants. Under this plan, the 
survey will fully conform to federal regulations--specifically, the 
Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), Privacy Act Regulations (34 CFR 
part 5b), the Hawkins-Stafford Amendments of 1988 (Public Law 100-297), 
and the Computer Security Act of 1987. The plan for maintaining 
confidentiality includes signing confidentiality agreements and 
notarized nondisclosure affidavits obtained from all personnel who will 
have access to individual identifiers. Also included in the plan is 
personnel training regarding the meaning of confidentiality, 
particularly as it relates to handling requests for information and 
providing assurance to respondents about the protection of their 
responses; controlled and protected access to computer files under the 
control of a single data base manager; built-in safeguards concerning 
status monitoring and receipt control systems; and a secured and 
operator-manned in-house computing facility. Data files and 
documentation will be delivered to RTI and EPA at the end of the 
project, but no names or addresses will be included on any data file. A 
locator database for these sample members will be maintained by the 
survey research firm in a separate and secure location. All data 
collection elements and procedures will be reviewed by RTI's Committee 
for the Protection of Human Subjects. This committee serves as RTI's 
Institutional Review Board (IRB) as required by 45 CFR part 46. It is 
the policy of RTI that the IRB review all research involving human 
subjects in a manner consistent with the regulations in 45 CFR part 46 
and regardless of funding source to ensure that all RTI studies 
involving human populations comply with applicable regulations 
concerning informed consent, confidentiality, and protection of 
privacy.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for EPA's 
regulations are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and 48 CFR Chapter 15.
    The EPA would like to solicit comments in order to:
    (i) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    (ii) evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden 
of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of 
the methodology and assumptions used;
    (iii) enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information 
to be collected; and
    (iv) minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submission of responses.
    Burden Statement: Because the proposed survey will take advantage 
of the existing and pre-recruited panel of WebTV respondents, the only 
burden imposed by the survey on respondents will be the time required 
to take the survey. Based on pretest interviews, the survey authors 
estimate that this will involve an average of 25 minutes per 
respondent. With 250 respondents for the pilot survey, and 2000 
respondents for the full-scale survey, this will involve a total of 
937.5 hours. Since the survey is a one-time collection, this represents 
both an annual and a total burden estimate. Based on an average hourly 
wage of $22.15 (including employer costs of all employee benefits), the 
survey authors expect that the average per-respondent cost for the 
pilot survey will be $9.23 and the corresponding one-time total cost to 
all respondents will be $20,765.00. Since this information collection 
is voluntary and does not involve any additional special equipment, 
respondents will not incur any capital or operation and maintenance 
(O&M) costs.
    Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources 
expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or 
provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time 
needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize 
technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and 
verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and 
disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to 
comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; 
train personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information; 
search data sources; complete and review the collection of information; 
and transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

    Dated: January 4, 2002.
Al McGartland,
Director, National Center for Environmental Economics, Office of Policy 
Economics and Innovation.
[FR Doc. 02-2126 Filed 1-28-02; 8:45 am]
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